{"id":772061,"date":"2026-06-30T23:10:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:10:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/772061\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T23:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T23:10:24","slug":"why-canadiens-gm-hughes-wont-be-making-waves-in-free-agency-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/772061\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Canadiens GM Hughes won’t be making waves in free-agency pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 If you\u2019re hoping for a big splash, we regret to inform you Montreal Canadiens<\/a> general manager Kent Hughes won\u2019t be making one in the unrestricted free-agent pool.<\/p>\n

Not that you should want him to go cannonballing into those waters. This year, they\u2019re barren of the type of difference-makers Hughes is after, and throwing more money over more term than players in there are worth isn\u2019t his M.O.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Especially not with a young, upstart Canadiens team coming off an appearance in the Eastern Conference Final; a team not looking to block the premium talent and depth coursing through its pipeline.<\/p>\n

It’s set to arrive soon in Montreal, even if some of it won\u2019t be here come noon on July 1.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But if you sign a Brandon Duhaime, then you likely won\u2019t have space for a Florian Xhekaj sooner than later, and that isn\u2019t the plan here \u2014 even if the Canadiens could use some beef on the wing.<\/p>\n

They won\u2019t convince the 29-year-old, six-foot-two, 210-pound, soon-to-be-former Washington Capital to take a one-year deal as a placeholder for Xhekaj when he could be mainstay somewhere else. There aren\u2019t a lot of Duhaimes on the market, so this one is going to take advantage of that.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s only one Mason Marchment out there \u2014 a 50ish-point, six-foot-five, 212-pound winger who plays mean \u2014 and we suspect the Canadiens would be more than willing to satisfy his contract demands.<\/p>\n

But they aren\u2019t the only team willing to do that, and sources suggested late on Tuesday afternoon that the 31-year-old has his eyes set on another.<\/p>\n

That leaves little else of appeal via this avenue for the Canadiens, though it was never the one they were running down to make themselves better for both the immediate and long-term future.<\/p>\n

Trade is the avenue of choice, and sources from around the league have said Hughes is pushing extremely hard to make it a rewarding one, which we\u00a0made note of that<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

That was after Hughes said, \u201cI\u2019m confident we\u2019re going to be able to do something.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

The GM had just traded up in the first round of the NHL Draft to select pugnacious pugilist Gleb Pugachyov 26th\u00a0overall, and he said it was just a matter of time before he\u2019d make another move.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you when, but I feel like we\u2019re in a position to do it,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cWe\u2019ll just do it when it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were it completely up to him, it would be done already.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, as Hughes explained, \u201cWhen you\u2019re buying, the seller controls.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got here, we were selling, and so we controlled the timeline on things,\u201d Hughes continued. \u201cWhen you\u2019re buying, you just have to keep calling and keep calling. That\u2019s what we\u2019ve done in the past when we\u2019ve made the trades that we\u2019ve made. I might get frustrated, but I\u2019m not going to stop calling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not until a top-six forward or top-four defenceman \u2014 or both \u2014 lands either Wednesday, Thursday, the middle of August, the end of November, or right before the 2027 NHL trade deadline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hughes could (and likely will) do a bit of selling in the interim, too. He traded Brendan Gallagher to Vancouver on Monday, and that was hours before deciding to not tender Joe Veleno a qualifying offer to allow the depth centre to pursue unrestricted free agency, and those moves still left 12 forwards on the Canadiens\u2019 roster and little space for Xhekaj, Owen Beck and Jared Davidson \u2014 who are all NHL hopefuls \u2014 to fill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So look for him to potentially clear some up.<\/p>\n

Hughes also has young defencemen pushing their way up a loaded depth chart on defence, so something could shake loose there.<\/p>\n

And while Samuel Montembeault is under contract with the Canadiens for one more year at $3.15 million, his place on the team is anything but assured. Hughes could hold the goaltender and buy Jacob Fowler more development time in the American Hockey League, but the player wants a chance to redeem his value ahead of his next contract and Hughes could just as easily ship him out west to give him that opportunity in short order.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t think the GM is scared to leave Montreal\u2019s net to 25-year-old Jakub Dobes and Fowler, though nothing\u2019s imminent on that front.<\/p>\n

Still, that could change instantaneously.\u00a0<\/p>\n

You could say the same of a contract extension for Ivan Demidov, who led all NHL rookies in scoring this past season. We don\u2019t know that he\u2019ll have an extension on the first day he\u2019s eligible to sign one (Wednesday), but we wouldn\u2019t strike the possibility it could come together quickly.<\/p>\n

Either way, we don\u2019t expect the process between the Canadiens and Demidov will be anywhere near as drawn out as it was with Lane Hutson (who could\u2019ve signed last July but only ended up signing last October).<\/p>\n

Dobes, the goaltender who finished in fourth place in the Calder Trophy race, is also able to extend as of Wednesday. But that negotiation could take a little bit longer to settle than the Demidov’s, given Dobes\u2019 status as a 2027 restricted free agent who\u2019s arbitration eligible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t expect either of their deals to come through on July 1. And barring a trade or two, that\u2019ll be just part of the reason it\u2019s a quiet day in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Because Hughes isn\u2019t making huge waves in the free-agent pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL \u2014 If you\u2019re hoping for a big splash, we regret to inform you Montreal Canadiens general manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-772061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}